This is pretty good.

Sponsors and sponsorship.

There is an official AA pamphlet on sponsorship that is usually available in the literature collection of most AA meetings. It may also be requested from the local AA Central Office.

Virtually all AA meetings and members recommend that newcomers obtain an AA sponsor relatively early in their recovery. As with everything else in AA, there are no official rules or regulations about sponsors and sponsorship. The basic idea is to acquire a mentor or "Big Brother" or Sister who is willing and able to guide the neophyte as his recovery progresses. Same-sex sponsors are generally encouraged except under unusual circumstances. The suggestion that newcomers have a sponsor is, like everything else in AA, just that, a suggestion. There is no requirement that anyone have a sponsor, and no one checks to see whether anyone else does.

The usual advice is to look for a sponsor "who has what you want," i.e. who appears to be sober and emotionally balanced and who displays the kinds of beliefs and behaviors that one wishes to emulate and from whom one hopes to learn something of value not only about recovery, but even about life itself. Because of the agitated and anxious emotional state of many AA newcomers, it may not be easy to make such determinations until a number of meetings have gone by and the emotional dust has begun to settle a bit. There is no real requirement to "get a sponsor at any cost," so it is permissible and probably better to take one's time and look around a bit before actually selecting someone to ask. This selection is usually done on the basis of observing and listening to the potential sponsor speak during meetings and perhaps noting their interactions with others before and after as well as during the meetings.

Some meetings include in their "readings"(the formalized way in which the meeting is opened or closed) the invitation for anyone desiring a temporary sponsor to contact a particular individual immediately after the meeting. The suggestion is often made to newcomers to seek a temporary rather than a long term sponsor just to get started in the program. Like so-called temporary employment, many but not all of these relationships will mature into lasting ones. Calling them "temporary" merely makes it easier for both parties to retire from them if for any reason they desire to do so.

Sponsorship is a highly individual matter with no fixed rules or regulations. The style and content of the "mentoring" vary tremendously from sponsor to sponsor. Some sponsors have a fairly structured approach with specific suggestions and even "assignments" for those who ask them to sponsor them. They may ask their "sponsees" to call them every day for a while just to get in the habit of using the telephone, or they may assign specific parts of the Big Book or other official AA literature to be read and discussed with them. Sponsors and sponsees often meet before or after the meeting for coffee or meals in order to get to know each other and discuss recovery. Whatever the individual style of a particular sponsor, it is always understood that the sponsee is free and in fact morally obliged to call his sponsor any time he is in trouble or about to drink.

Sponsors and sponsees are absolutely free at any time to terminate their relationship if it is not satisfactory to either of them.

Sonsorship Pamphlet
http://www.aa.org/catalog.cfm?origpage=161&product=17

Source...

http://www.bma-wellness.com/papers/First_AA_Meeting.html

Yeah I'm just really wondering where this journey leads...What exactly are the 12 steps... I've been in this program for quite a while and I'm feeling like the old me, but what are the steps gonna do?

Yup, I've read the promises a lot, I'm just wondering how much I'm gonna be transforming my life and where I'm going if I really get into the steps heavy duty???...

Hey Closer, ...

On the fifth page of The Dr's Opinion in front of the BB ... he states that we repeatedly go in circles until we go through "an entire psychic change" ... as long as your feeling like the 'old you' you haven't done the steps OR you haven't done them the right way ...

^^ Stepchild, thanks for posting that page on sponsorship.  Glad I read it.

Closer wrote:

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I was wondering how you work the steps.  Do I really need to go around with some stranger from an alano club?  Can I read my big book and do it myself?  I've heard theres no rules enough times, and that I dont need a sponsor?  Can I get an online sponsor?

Can someone here, Possibly an oldtimer explain it to me. 

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Seems like there are two issues here, working the steps and having a sponsor.

In addition to all the good input above, I'd say the following:

1. Steps-I found that the 12&12 book was essential to my learning of the steps. The Big Book was published in 1939 and had a mostly conceptual description of the steps. In some cases it did not really explain them all that well (e.g., steps 6 and 7). That's why Bill W. wrote the 12&12 after about 12 years of experience of AAers working the steps. He did it to "broaden and deepen the understanding of the Twelve Steps as first written in the earlier work."

Whether one works the steps alone, or with a sponsor, or with other fellow AAs, the 12&12 is the best resource put out by AA on the steps. Personally, I didn't start deeply understanding the steps until I read and studied and thought about the descriptions in the 12&12. This book can, of course, be used in tandem with the Big Book descriptions of the steps.

BTW, step meetings are really, really good for understanding the steps. (Doh!) There are numerous books and articles that detail the steps  by variious authors which can be quite useful.  Joe McQ has a couple of books on steps. And there are many recordings of lectures/talks on the steps. The Joe and Charlie tapes (available online) come to mind.

It is good to be open to all available resources about the steps. That's something a sponsor can help with.

2. Sponsor--The previously mentioned pamphlet, "Questions and Answers on Sponsorship," is a terrific help to AA members looking for a sponsor (or deciding whether to get one). It explains many facets of the sponsor-sponsee relationship and lists 17 items that a sponsor does (or can do). This list is very important to a new sponsee. It is basically AA's job description for a sponsor. The description is what you have a reasonable right to expect from a sponsor, given decades of experience across the breadth of AA. This broad perspective is important, I think, since there are often regional and/or group and/or individual styles of sponsorship that seem to depart from the 17-point framework. Sometimes, such departures are fine. Other times, well, they're weird.

The most recent AA membership survey shows that 73% of members get a sponsor within 90 days. And 79% of AA members currently have a sponsor.  Not everyone gets a sponsor quickly. Not everyone gets a sponsor. And not everyone replaces a sponsor when such a relationship ends.

On this site, and others, there are several discussions about sponsorship in the past. Just search on "sponsorship" or "sponsor" and you'll find them. And, certainly, keep asking about it. How else are you gonna know what you want to know?

Finally, getting an online sponsor may work. There are advantages and disadvantages in that kind of arrangement. No reason why it wouldn't successful, given proper expectations, preparation and understanding of the relationship and responsibilities. It's 2012, not 1940.

Best of luck to you, Closer. Enjoy the journey.